Women fair game for cruise's hunting pack

Eight men known to have been aboard the pacific sky at the time of
the death of Dianne Brimble.

July 3, 2006

The Brimble inquest delivers insight into a gang of sexual
predators, writes Robert Wainwright.

LETTERIO SILVESTRI was not looking for a long-term relationship
and "hated" even dating. But he was very interested in women - who
were to be hunted and procured for sex, then discarded.

Mr Silvestri's two hours of nonchalant, and at times arrogant,
evidence before a deputy state coroner, Jacqueline Milledge, on
Friday presented a brief and disturbing view into the minds of
eight men who boarded the Pacific Sky in 2002 for a holiday that
ended with the death of Dianne Brimble.

It was not the notion of a sun-filled sightseeing cruise through
the Pacific that persuaded the loose group of gym and nightclub
associates to plan their holiday, but the heady cocktail of
alcohol, drugs and the thought of women trapped aboard a ship.

After all, as Mr Silvestri - the first of eight "persons of
interest" to the inquest - testified, none of the men was even
carrying a camera. The now infamous photograph of them posing as
they prepared to board was taken using a mobile phone.

What the men did bring was a range of drugs, prescription and
illicit, to fuel the sexual appetites of themselves and those who
could be convinced to partake.

Mr Silvestri has given three varied accounts on what happened
aboard the P&O liner on the night of September 23, 2002.
Versions from the other seven are expected later. Mr Silvestri told
police, when interviewed two days after Mrs Brimble's death, that
he carried sleeping tablets and Viagra aboard the vessel.

A few hours after her death, he only mentioned sleeping tablets
to cruise staff. On Friday, four years later, he admitted to valium
as well as body-building drugs and conceded that he probably
boasted to other passengers that he also brought ecstasy.

Mr Silvestri said he may have given Viagra to his shipmate Mark
Wilhelm as they sat in cabin D182 with an intoxicated and
drug-addled Mrs Brimble.

The hunt for women began almost as soon they the party boarded.
After unpacking their clothes and attending a safety demonstration,
Mr Silvestri and some the others attended a party on the back deck,
having their first drink virtually as they cruised beneath the
Harbour Bridge.

Mr Silvestri reckoned he sidled up to at least half a dozen
during the party and began "big knobbing" himself - bragging about
his earnings and the drugs he carried. Lying to impress women, he
told the court, was "what normal men would do".

Mr Silvestri and his mates did not hunt together. While he "hung
out" with Matthew Slade, Mr Wilhelm and Dragan Losic were prowling
one of the ship's many bars. Bobby-Jo Vial, who was 19, told the
court she was accosted by the pair, already drug affected - on
ecstasy, she assumed - within a few hours of leaving port. So was
her mother, Donna.

The hunt resumed in the evening after dinner, with several of
the men "invading" a cabin occupied by Joanne Muller's two
daughters, Karli and Lauren, and two of their friends.

Eventually it spilled into the Starlight nightclub, where Mr
Silvestri danced with Mr Losic and removed one of the ship's
lifejackets - a prank he suddenly recalled with glee during
questioning by Ron Hoenig, the counsel assisting the coroner.

Although he rejected the attention of a "bouncy" Mrs Brimble in
the early hours of the next morning, Mr Wilhelm

did not. He led the mother

of three back to cabin D182, where, already intoxicated, she was
given the drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, known as

GHB or "fantasy". Another friend, Ryan Kuchel, overheard Mr
Wilhelm tell Mrs Brimble it would "make her 10 times hornier" than
she had ever felt.

Mr Silvestri says he was told by Mr Kuchel and Mr Wilhelm that
she took the drug willingly, although Ms Muller, woken in the next
cabin by the commotion, has testified that she heard Mrs Brimble
protest: "I'm not like that and I don't do that sort of thing."

Mrs Brimble then had her vagina partially shaved and was
abandoned, naked, on top of Mr Silvestri, who insists he was asleep
because of a combination of alcohol and valium, and only vaguely
aware that he was being given oral sex by a woman he considered
repulsive.

In the meantime, Mr Kuchel had left the cabin, as did Mr Wilhelm
after trying to revive Mrs Brimble when she was pushed off the bed
by a groggy Mr Silvestri.

Mr Kuchel and Mr Wilhelm joined Mr Losic and other travelling
companion, Petar Pantic, in a nearby cabin, where three of them
drank a "pinkish liquid" before Mr Losic offered some to three
women - Kellie and Lisa Davis and Tanya Power.

When Ms Davis asked what it was, Mr Losic told her: "Don't worry
- just have it." When pressed he said: "It's fantasy,".

At this stage, with the sun rising outside, four men had taken
doses of a dangerous sexual stimulant after hours of drinking, and
were in a cabin with young women while Mrs Brimble lay dying in
their own cabin a few metres away. They even returned to take
photos of a woman who, according to Mr Wilhelm's written account,
had defecated on herself.

When Mr Silvestri was questioned on Friday about the photo, he
said he was "rapt", because they showed him asleep - another
"notch" in his story.

It would be a further two hours, and a second attempt to revive
her - during which time Mr Silvestri was told about the GHB -
before medical help was called. By then it was too late.

In the days after Mrs Brimble's death, the men continued their
predatory behaviour, according to testimony from several women who
say they were targeted and offered drugs.

The next night Mr Wilhelm and Mr Silvestri were back in the
nightclub, this time offering two teenagers, Jessica Kornacki and
Amy Mudge, free US holidays, clothes and perfume. They even asked
one to dance in their room for money.

Although they rejected the men's advances, Mr Wilhelm eventually
convinced Bobby-Jo Vial to have sex with him.

During Mr Silvestri's testimony on Friday, his lawyer, Mark
Dennis, invited Ms Milledge to end the hearings because there was
enough evidence, based on Mr Silvestri's claims about Mr Wilhelm,
to charge someone over Mrs Brimble's death.

Ms Milledge refused. Mr Silvestri, who has since married and had
a child, will return to the stand on July 24. There is more
depravity to tell.